"Krone" interview

Leyya: “Needed a break to feel like it again”

Marco Kleebauer and Sophie Lindinger end their Leyya live break and release their third album "Half Asleep".

(Bild: Ink Music, Leyya)

Local indie pop heroes Leyya recently celebrated their live comeback after a break of several years in Vienna's METAStadt as the support act for Air. Now Sophie Lindinger and Marco Kleebauer are following up with the album "Half Asleep" and a short tour. In the "Krone" interview, they explain why they never really left, why introverts are extroverts and what makes the two of them so special.

"Krone": Sophie, Marco - your new album "Half Asleep" is considered by many to be a comeback because some people thought Leyya had stopped. But you've simply always just taken a longer break from playing live. Did you quickly realize that the message was misunderstood?
Sophie Lindinger: It became more and more of an issue and I had the feeling that people didn't really read what we wrote about the break. 
Marco Kleebauer: Then there's also the fact that the organizers used it to promote the last few concerts, of course, and everyone misunderstood that. People often talk to us about releasing songs again, but we've already released songs in 2021 and 2022 - then again in 2024.

Is this album more of a comeback for the people out there than for yourselves?
Kleebauer: We haven't posted anything on social media, there's absolute silence. People are used to artists posting something all the time and making music at the same time. We only post when there's music to show and I find that relatively pleasant. Artists who post too much annoy me because I don't want to hear every little thing.

Today, all artists are content creators - whether they like it or not.
Lindinger: Today, you have to put your personality at the center and then hopefully people will listen to your music. But we don't want to do that at all. I don't like making a fuss on TikTok because it has nothing to do with my work. You lose a bit if you don't post all the time, but I'd rather do that than make a fool of myself.
Kleebauer: It suits some artists quite well that they do a lot on social media. It's authentic for some, but it's very far removed from us. Perhaps we are also appreciated for the fact that in the ten years of Leyya we have focused on music and constant work and not on short-lived postings. You don't go through the roof that way, but you are more stable. We're not constantly putting our faces in front of the camera and it's nice that a lot of people haven't forgotten us anyway. The music has to fit, that's the biggest basis.

In the meantime, you can no longer rely on the online algorithms. If you don't post anything for a while, you're completely out of the picture.
Lindinger: Instagram and Spotify have changed the algorithms so that it's more important to generate a fanbase than to play to existing fans. It's all about maximization and the existing ones have seen nothing more of us. I follow bands because I want to see things from those bands - so it's absurd how Instagram changed the system. I feel like these platforms are working completely against artists right now.
Kleebauer: Those who have a community suffer the most. We've been thinking for months about what we can do outside of Instagram to reach our community. Releasing our music on Spotify is one way, but we want to interact with people in our own way. 
Lindinger: There's a lot of upheaval right now and a lot of artists don't know exactly where they belong. I'm hoping for a new structure that always emerges when something is in upheaval, where we can then start afresh.
Kleebauer: A normal website will perhaps outlast everything. There are no likes and no ratings, you can still get information and interact in forums. I have the feeling that Leyya is not just based on Instagram and that is worth a lot. After so many years, you're well rooted in reality. That was very important before YouTube and is becoming increasingly important now. A real community that also comes to the concerts.

Why was there this long Leyya live break in the first place? Would you not have wanted to perform if you hadn't been playing with your many other projects the whole time ...
Kleebauer: It took us a relatively long time to bring the music to the stage in a way that made sense. It depends on so many factors such as sound, light and the atmosphere in the room. Sharktank and My Ugly Clementine are bands where you go on stage, plug in the amplifiers and start playing. It's not that easy with Leyya and we were looking for this lightness. Now we've reached a point where we're playing a few gigs and playing them the way we want to. The concerts and venues are chosen and we no longer say yes to every festival. We often had the feeling after a concert that we could do it differently, but it wasn't possible.
Lindinger: Leyya's music needs a certain space that you have to create for yourself. If that doesn't work, it's no fun and we've now found ways to make it work. We used to spend hours on buses or planes and then it was difficult to realize the ideas. That killed a lot of the vibe, the music and the motivation. We needed the break to feel like doing it again. When this desire came back, we decided to play less and more selectively.

Leyya's music and lyrics have a completely different weight to your other projects. That in turn requires a lot more effort.
Lindinger: Definitely, and it also requires a different level of attention from the audience. At 4 pm at the festival, with a beer in the sun, the music doesn't seem ideal for us or for the people.
Kleebauer: You're neither doing the people at the festival a favor who want a party sound, nor yourself. We are more aware of the context in which our music should take place. Today we also say no and no longer have to take every option. Even with a cool festival request, it often doesn't make sense and we stick to our guns. Of course we're happy about the requests and don't want to seem arrogant, but it just has to fit. There are now seven instead of 40 concerts a year. Perhaps it can develop into more, but the framework conditions have to be right. We have accepted that we are not the band that you can put anywhere. We wanted to be that before, but that was something. It didn't work out.

Does the fact that your other projects are also doing well and are very well booked also play a part in this self-confidence with Leyya?
Lindinger: I wouldn't say that, because it was a conscious decision from the start that Leyya needed a certain framework. But Leyya has nothing to do with the other bands.
Kleebauer: We already felt the need to perform live and we covered this need with the other bands. The biggest part of our musical life was Leyya, but when you play in a rock band, it's a different form of self. There are only guitars, amps, no computers and it just has to be loud. If we hadn't dropped out, we might have had to live it up with Leyya.
Lindinger: It's very liberating not to have to put on a special performance on stage, because other bands can do that.

You wrote the songs on "Half Asleep" over a longer period of time ...
Lindinger: A few songs were already started between 2019 and 2021 and then finalized later. But there are also new songs that fit in very well. 
Kleebauer: The songwriting process was a long time ago. We made "Half Asleep" in the summer of 2023 and the album was actually finished in the winter. It feels like a long time for us, but we've been waiting for the right window of opportunity. The songwriting flowed really well.
Lindinger: We were both unspokenly connected to the same idea and the songs came together really smoothly. All the songs and ideas are on the album because they fit. That wasn't the case with the other albums.
Kleebauer: We made an insane amount of music in 2018 and 2019, then there was a block. There was an EP and a double single, but the work of those two years was so important for the active week we had in 2023. For a long time, we got bogged down in details because we didn't know what we wanted to do in general. In the one creative week, the knot was untied. You often write ten bad songs and the eleventh is good. Then you write something completely wrong for a year and in one week everything explodes. You never get anything for free in the creative process.

After so many years in the creative business, do you learn to have the patience that it sometimes takes to get something done?
Lindinger: I still have no patience at all, but I know that I need breaks in between. Once I'm stuck, I need to breathe and not get bogged down any longer. It can take a week, a month or a year, but I've learned that I need to take my time in between.
Kleebauer: You always have fears. But we did so much in the one week that we didn't have time to reflect. We had a good feeling and went through with it. The first album went well, the second was very difficult to make and we continued to feel the pressure. The rent also has to be paid. But we've built up a lot with Leyya and knowing that has taken away a lot of our fears. But you can never completely get rid of your fears. You can only make the process as pleasant as possible.

Was finding your way back to the basic sound and essence of Leyya even clearer after you were able to let off steam in other directions?
Lindinger: That was definitely the case for me. I knew very clearly what I didn't feel like doing and what I really wanted to do. Namely things that I've never done before and that are perhaps not classically Leyya. We were both very open to everything and at some point we felt that we could do whatever we wanted.

For me, "Half Asleep" has a hopeful heaviness. It's not completely drenched in melancholy, but raises questions and tries to find solutions.
Lindinger: That actually sums it up perfectly.
Kleebauer: Our music has always had a bit of that. The last album was musically very positive, but overall we always look for the hopeful. Sophie doesn't always say that, but mixed with the music you get a feeling of "it'll work out". What makes our music special is that you don't fall into a deep sadness, but because you want to listen to it again.
Lindinger: The EP was much sadder and darker and "Half Asleep" grew out of that. I worked through my depression on the EP and now see things in a positive light. There are a lot of questions, but I'm aware of the depression and deal with it differently now. It's a nice development that you can also feel musically. I make music that I would like to listen to myself and I love music when I get a warm feeling when I listen to it that mixes nostalgia, melancholy and joy. I think we've achieved that quite well now.

Sophie, do your last solo album, the Leyya EP and the new Leyya album have a connection in terms of content?
Lindinger: Of course. The EP and my solo album were created at a similar time and I was caught up in similar emotional worlds. Now there are still songs that we started at the same time and that's why there are still connections. I have lived through depression and it has also changed for me. It's an up and down and I continue to tell this story on "Half Asleep". It's part of my life and it's not going away, but I also know that it's not going to be as bad as it was in the beginning because I can deal with it. All of these products are a part of my life and are therefore thematically connected. My development is perfectly captured in these three works.

The album title always seems to oscillate between two poles. Insecurity and self-confidence, sleep and wakefulness, security and fickleness. Is it intended as an album of intermediate worlds and ambivalences?
Lindinger: Absolutely. It's an exciting question because I often deal thematically in the songs with where I am in life, how I have relationships with people and what my existence around me is all about. Where do I belong? Am I like this or not? Do I like something or not? Life is made up of questions and you always have to find yourself a little bit. 
Kleebauer: These ambivalences come out in different forms. Many songs are about having the need to be around people, but then being overwhelmed by all these people. I'm not as familiar with social anxiety as Sophie, but I do have it. Everyone is constantly stressed because their cell phone is always beeping. All of that is present on the album. Everyone can find themselves in it.

I find it interesting that rather introverted people like you always find their way onto the stage and thus to the people.
Lindinger: I also find that very exciting. I had a terribly bad time on stage at first because I didn't know what to do. I wasn't ready for it for a very long time. When you stand on a stage and sing vulnerable songs, you offer a huge target. Then people from the music industry come and want to tell you how to perform. It's only over the years that I've learned that I can be present on stage without feeling bad. It's part of experience and routine. I know how my music should sound and not the people standing out there. That gives you a sense of security, which is often lacking with social anxiety.

It may sound strange, but are very personal lyrics perhaps even easier to perform on stage because they are yours? That it's still easier than performing non-personal but lighter ones?
Lindinger: It may not be easier, but personal lyrics do more for me on stage. I feel much more when I perform and that's the beauty of it. I can also perform things that are far removed from me, but that doesn't give me much. I want to build a connection with the people. To see that they also feel what I feel. That's the magic of a show. It's sometimes painful, but very beautiful.

Marco, do Sophie's lyrics have a direct influence on your background music?
Kleebauer: When we start a song, Sophie has a pen and paper in front of her and we talk about the initial ideas. On "Half Asleep" it's more than ever that it's not about a cool sound, but that I want to support what Sophie is feeling. On the album "Sauna", the music was extremely happy and the lyrics very depressive. This time the lyrics are more multi-faceted and have more layers and we have responded to that musically. Which synth sound, for example, creates a melancholy feeling?
Lindinger: Which sound supports the lyrics? Sound and lyrics can also be cool next to each other, but it gets really good when everything interlocks. The songs were created as building blocks and one thing led to another. So we quickly ended up with fully produced songs, which was never the case before.

That really sounds like a very fresh, unspent approach in an established partnership.
Kleebauer: That's really the case. You need certain skills to realize something like that. You can't take a day to create a sound because you have to catch the feeling immediately. You need a bit of experience and understanding for the other person.
Lindinger: In the past, we had things in our heads and spent ages fiddling around - we lost a lot of the spontaneity that makes for good ideas. Sometimes you have to implement things quickly and we practiced that on "Half Asleep". Everything went smoothly and easily, there was never any doggedness.
Kleebauer: We always lacked this spontaneity in our puzzle. We've managed to do that now and it's great. We do everything as a team and have been working on it for over ten years. Now we can do things the way we've always imagined them. We are no longer so dogged. We adapt ourselves and no longer the idea we had. You let yourself be guided and take a different path that you would never have taken before.

An important theme on "Half Asleep" is tiredness. Both personally and socially. You now have the feeling that you have more energy for Leyya than ever before.
Kleebauer: We've created an oasis in our heads. When we're in the studio, we don't look at our cell phones. The album is very much connoted with breaking free from these hostages of everyday life.
Lindinger: We let ourselves and the band breathe so that we could get our energy back. We felt that and it was urgently needed. We want to keep the mood the same and not let everything become too much for us.

Does the creation of songs require radical egotism so that you can then share the result with others?
Lindinger: Not for us. When I work with Marco, I often have the feeling that his idea fits perfectly with mine and vice versa. We often have such unspoken ideas, which are then implemented without compromise.
Kleebauer: It's a constant back and forth. It's different to bands who tinker with their ideas on the computer at home and then meet up. We have the same basic stock of ideas and that's what makes the big difference. We always work on the songs together and not externally. Our entire musical identity started together in our basement in Eferding. You don't often have such a common creative language in life. We do invite people over to play saxophone or help out somewhere, but we have a clear vision for that. Apart from that, everything happens between the two of us.

It would be about time to record a raw unplugged album in the Eferding cellar for some anniversary ...
Kleebauer: That's actually true, it's not a bad idea. It's just so cold down there. (laughs)

What will your live shows look like over the next few weeks?
Kleebauer: For the first time, we have a real dramaturgy in the set. With some bands, it's more appropriate to mix fast and quiet songs. We already managed the dramaturgy very well on the album and already had the setlist fixed in April because we wanted to create an arc. We will play almost all the songs from "Half Asleep" and then a few old songs. It won't be a classic concert because we won't automatically play the songs that have the most Spotify clicks. I never used to have a head for that kind of thing, it was all about the technology. (laughs)

Short tour through Austria
If you missed Leyya at Air, you have several options over the next few weeks. Sophie Lindinger and Marco Kleebauer will be presenting their new album "Half Asleep" on September 21 at the WUK in Vienna, on September 25 at the Posthof in Linz, on September 27 at Treibhaus Innsbruck and on September 28 at ppc in Graz. Tickets and further information about the Upper Austrian duo's concerts can be found at www.oeticket.com.